William ESPY

1771 - ____

ID Number: I85025

Notes

NORTH BEAVER TOWNSHIP. EARLY SETTLEMENTS [p. 66]
"In April, 1802, Fran cis Nesbit came, with his family, and
settled on Hickory creek, near w here the old mill stands, south
of Mount Jackson. The family consisted of his wife, five sons,
and two daughters. The sons were John, Franci s, William, James
and Allen; and the daughters, Elizabeth and Anna. Th ey came
from Cumberland county, Pa., although the Nesbits were origina
lly from Scotland. William Espy, who married Elizabeth Nesbit,
had set tled the previous year, 1801. His son, Thomas Espy,
afterward went to North Carolina, and died there. A daughter of
his afterward married Go vernor Vance, of that State. Francis
Nesbit gave twenty-five dollars t oward the establishment of the
old college at Darlington, Beaver county.
William Espy had made arrangements to build a mill, and Mr.
Nesbit, who had also been out in 1801, brought out the
mill-gearing with him in 1802, and he and Espy built the mill.
Espy was a surveyor by profes sion. They located on Donation
tract, number 1786 supposed to contain four hundred acres, but a
survey showed that it contained over five hundred.

Mr. Nesbit sold his interest in the mill to Espy, and took all
but one hundred acres of the land. Mr. Nesbit died in September,
1802, and was the first person ever buried in the cemetery at
Westfield Pre sbyterian Church. (...)

After William Espy became sole proprietor of t he grist-mill
mentioned, he traded it for a farm, about 1806, to a man named
Wylie, who owned it about four years, and traded it to a man na
med James Boyes. Boyes kept it some eight years, and sold it
finally t o Elder John Edgar, from Westmoreland county, who had
previously start ed a distillery near Westfield church."
From : History of Lawrence Cou nty, Pennsylvania, with
illustrations descriptive of its scenery, pala tial residences,
public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufact ories,
from original sketches of the highest ability , [by S.W. and P.
A. Durant], Philadelphia, L. H. Everts, 1877.
On line on : http://www.
rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/lawrence/1877/#biograph